In a high-risk political gamble intended to solidify his Democratic Party base, President Clinton signaled yesterday that he will not retreat from affirmative action when he addresses the explosive issue in a long-anticipated speech today.

After a six-month review of the 170 federal programs that give workplace preferences to women and minorities to remedy past discrimination, White House officials said Clinton is ready to modify, but not retreat from affirmative action.

In a speech today at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., the president is expected to declare that the quest for racial and gender equality in the United States is not yet over and that affirmative action is still an important tool in achieving that elusive goal.

"The administration, through the president's speech, is going to make clear that we favor affirmative action without hype, without fear and without apology," said Deval Patrick, assistant attorney general for civil rights, who has played a key role in formulating the White House position on the subject.

"Beyond affirmative action, we have to look at urban policy within the context of the direction of the country, priorities and decisive leadership," Jackson said, sounding more and more like a third party presidential candidate. "There is room for another direction in this debate . . . I intend to get the Rainbow Coalition a line on the ballot."

Clinton also still risks a revolt among conservative Democrats who have threatened to bolt from the party over an issue they say alienates the key voting bloc of so- called "angry white males."

In addition, Clinton may again leave himself open to charges that he is trying to appear decisive but is simply agreeing only to further study the issue -- a criticism Governor Wilson leveled in a speech yesterday in Los Angeles.

A 96-page report to be released after the speech outlines the president's decision to retain every existing affirmative action program, but calls for further study in light of a recent Supreme Court ruling restricting preferential federal programs to victims of discrimination.

After emphasizing the president's commitment to affirmative action, the report said Clinton's directive could set the stage for elimination of programs that meet some or all of these tests: "creates a quota, creates preferences for unqualified individuals, creates reverse discrimination; or continues even after its purposes have been achieved."

In effect, the president is saying that after months of study that he wants months more of study, leading one White House official to worry that critics would say Clinton did little to change the status quo.

Wilson was quick to seize that point as he issued a "challenge" to Clinton "to stand up to political pressure and acknowledge the unfairness of affirmative action."

He predicted that Clinton would "once again stand courageously on both sides of the issue. He'll straddle the fence as he did on the base-closing process, afraid to offend anyone even on a matter of fundamental fairness."

Once Clinton delivers his speech today, "we'll find out whether the president is a profile in courage or a study in the status quo," Wilson said.

In an interview, George Stephanopoulos, a senior adviser to the president who is playing a leading role in the White House review of affirmative action, rejected Wilson's challenge to Clinton.

"The president believes that we should stand by our commitment to equal opportunity, and stand by affirmative action when it is done right, and that means no quotas, no preferences, no reverse discrimination," Stephanopoulos said. "Unlike Governor Wilson, he is not willing to completely sweep away all of our efforts to fight for equal opportunity, and against discrimination and turn the clock back. Unlike Governor Wilson, the president is not going to exploit this issue and try to divide people by race or gender."

When the president initiated the affirmative action review six months ago, there were widespread predictions that he would propose major reforms in affirmative action programs, in part to win back white males who abandoned the Democratic Party in last November's elections. But the review apparently led key administration officials, including Vice President Al Gore and Stephanopoulos, to conclude that affirmative action, with some relatively minor changes, needed to be maintained.

"There will be some aspects of the review . . . that will lead to the implementation of some policy directives. But I would caution against anticipating any sweeping policy changes here," said White House spokesman Mike McCurry, adding that the president will "address the arguments made by some . . . that we can just abolish affirmative action altogether and make the assumption that the United States of America is now a race-free, oppression-free, discrimination-free society."

According to White House sources, Clinton is expected to propose at least one reform in programs that award a certain proportion of federal contracts to minority- and female-owned businesses. He plans to declare that businesses that invest in "distressed communities," even if they are owned by whites, would be eligible to participate in these programs.

In this way, everyone who is currently eligible for these programs will remain eligible, but the pool of potential applicants will be widened substantially.